The Colombian community in London - Geography - Queen Mary ...

council tax relief. However, there was also a widespread belief that claiming benefits was not
appropriate as Marcelo (interviewed in 2005) noted:
'Just like many of my Colombian friends, we aspire to have permission to work, not to
live off benefits, that's what we want, not to live off this help, without any self-esteem,
but by our own hands, a job that we can do with dignity such as driving a bus'.
For those unable to access benefits, the only other option was to borrow money. Indeed,
45.5% of Colombians had borrowed money at some point since they had arrived in London.
This was mainly for daily expenditures such as buying food and education expenses. Over half
(57%) borrowed from formal sources, mainly banks, with more than a quarter turning to friends
or family (27%). In addition, 38% of Colombians admitted to having current debts.
As well as borrowing money, some managed to get-by through „renting‟ bank accounts,
especially when they first arrived and if they were irregular. For example, Yaneth spoke about
her experiences of having to borrow both immigration papers and a bank account from a friend
when she first arrived to work in a cleaning job. She complained that this friend deducted £10
per week for this service (when she earned £50 per week at this time). Yaneth noted: „I felt
very uncomfortable about this; every time I got paid I had to contact her and ask for my
money. Sometimes she wasn‟t available, and it was a really uncomfortable situation‟. Among
the small proportion of people without access to a bank in the UK (3%), the only option was to
use a cheque cashing service – a service used by 7.5%.
Many Colombians also developed longer term practices to invest in their futures through
saving and sending remittances (see below). Almost two-thirds saved money (62%),
amounting to a median of £63 per month. Based on median figures, approximately 17% of
weekly personal income was being saved. Generally, those with higher incomes were more
likely to save.
The qualitative research highlighted how people make sacrifices in London in order to be able
to save for the longer term back home as 45 year old Pancho from Antioquia noted:
„I‟m not satisfied. Cleaning is not my work. I do it only out of necessity. The job I did
back home was very different [a teacher]. I came here to work for money. Anything will
do. The jobs here are dirty work, but they will do in order to meet your goals or to save,
to have money and to be able to send money home‟.
In a similar way, 32 year old Mateo from Bogotá, Colombia reported that he sacrificed his
current situation in order to save money for his future: „My strategy is to have as few expenses
as possible here so that I can save. There‟s no point in wasting money here‟.
THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS HAS EXACERBATED ECONOMIC HARDSHIP
The hardship experienced by Colombians has been exacerbated in recent years by the global
financial crisis. Although the crisis affects everyone in London, the qualitative research
highlighted how there are also specific effects experienced by migrants. In relation to the
labour market, there was a general perception that although jobs were still available,
exploitation in cleaning and catering in particular was thought to be increasing. This was
because more people were looking for work and so managers and supervisors could take
more advantage. Danilo was a 32 year old from Medellín who had a Highly Skilled Migrants
Programme (HSMP) visa. After working for a catering agency as well as studying English
when he first arrived he returned to Colombia and applied for the HSMP as an architect.
However, not long after he got a job in an architectural practice he lost it due to the crisis and
he ended-up working as a waiter:
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